In new research from the University of Missouri, man’s best friend may be a better companion than your best human friend. In a 12-week study of 54 people at an assisted living home, 35 people were assigned to a walking program five days a week, 19 served as a control group. Of the 35 in the walking program, 23 chose a friend or spouse to walk with and the remaining 12 took a bus daily to a local animal shelter where they were assigned a dog to walk.
To the researcher’s surprise, dog walkers showed large improvements in fitness while in some cases human walkers began to make excuses to skip the workout. On average dog walkers speed improved 28 percent compared to 4 percent with human walkers. Rebecca A. Johnson, director of the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri said, “What happened was nothing short of remarkable. The improvement in walking speed means their confidence in their walking ability had increased and their balance had increased. To have 28 percent improvement in walking speed is mind-boggling.”
Another unforeseen element of the study was encouragement. Ms. Johnson said, “In the human walking group, they were regularly discouraging each other from walking. We would hear them saying: ‘It’s hot today. I don’t want to walk, do you?’ When the people came to the animal shelter, they bounced off the bus and said, ‘Where’s my dog?’ And the dogs never gave any discouragement from walking.”
Silverado is no stranger to the remarkable love dogs and other pets bring to their 19 assisted living communities. Having made pets a requirement at communities, residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia can benefit from taking “Silverado” dogs on a walk whenever they like. This study supports what Silverado already knew, namely that pets give so much more to people than just love.
